Bizarre June lightning storms to continue; safety tips offered

There were almost 30 lightning strikes in Tuolumne and Calaveras counties Wednesday and officials predict thunderstorms today and in some parts of the region into next week.

“The whole United States has been getting whacked with nasty weather,” said Herb Arnold at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho.

The corridor from the elbow of Nevada down to Bakersfield has been getting hammered by lightning since May 30, Arnold said. The region received some 1,600 strikes during that time, he said. (See related story on Page A8.)
  

There were 24 lightning strikes from Wednesday to Thursday in the Stanislaus National Forest, said spokesman Jerry Snyder.

The Forest Service and National Park Service are monitoring a dozen fires sparked by lightning during storms late last week.

No new fires have been reported from Wednesday’s strikes.

“We really haven’t had very many compared to other areas,” Snyder said.

The National Weather Service predicts thunderstorms today in the Sonora and Angels Camp area. Thunderstorms are also expected through Wednesday in Yosemite National Park.

There are 2,000 thunderstorms globally at any given time, producing about 100 lightning strikes per second, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute.

The NLSI also notes there are about 15 to 20 million ground strikes per year in the United States, and Florida has the most.

Lightning is “static electricity gone giant scale,” the NLSI said.

“It’s an electrical discharge,” explained Robert Hohn, Summerville High School science teacher.

This enormous electrical discharge is caused by an imbalance between positive and negative charges in the atmosphere, according to National Geographic.

The National Geographic states: “During a storm, colliding particles of rain, ice, or snow increase this imbalance and often negatively charge the lower reaches of storm clouds. Objects on the ground, like steeples, trees, and the Earth itself, become positively charged — creating an imbalance that nature seeks to remedy by passing current between the two charges.”

“When you get a big enough electric voltage it will actually ionize the air,” Hohn said. “You get an electrical path through the ionized air. Once the path is set, the charge can flow both directions.”

“It’ll go through the path of least resistance and discharge itself to that point of least resistance,” said Jason Westfall, Sonora High School science teacher.

The lightning strike rapidly superheats the discharge channel, causing the air to expand rapidly, and the rapid heating and cooling of the air produces the shock wave thunder.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, air near a lightning strike is heated to 50,000-plus degrees Fahrenheit — hotter than the surface of the sun.  

“It’s dangerous,” Snyder said of lightning.

Two of Snyder’s cousins were killed in 1958 near Vacaville when they were standing under a tree and struck by lightning. 

According to the book “Death in Yosemite,” by Michael Ghiglieri and Charles Farabee, lightning has killed five people in Yosemite National Park.

There have been six deaths in the United States this year due to lightning strikes. There were 28 deaths in 2008, the National Weather Service reported.

The likelihood of getting struck by lightning is 1 in 28,500, according to the NLSI, and nine of 10 people survive a strike. However, nearly 25 percent of survivors suffer long-term pain and neurological disabilities.

The National Weather Service recommends: “When thunder roars, go indoors!”